Book Review: I Scrape the Window of Nothingness: New and Selected Poems

Abstract

I Scrape Window of Nothingness: New and Selected Poems. By Stella Vinitchi Radulescu. Asheville, N.C.: Orison Books, 2015. 227 pp. $30.00 (cloth).I Scrape Window of Nothingness wears its title not to appeal, but to intrigue. With ragged letters against a black background, cover poses a further challenge to prospective reader whom it dares to look inside. Initially it may summon bleak, even nihilistic views of some existentialist writers, but book surprises at each turn, holding readers in suspense, while we wait for an insight or revelation on verge of being unveiled. Radulescu does not allow entry into total despair, but she pulls us into a world of angels in shadow, while we work to extract from it what indefinable is (might it be hope?) that keeps us reading.Abandoning conventional order, poet places her recent work at front of book, so that one views her world in reverse chronology from 1989 to 2014. It is noteworthy that title is drawn from final poem ars poetic, which by its position would act as a consummation or summation of books message, in fact poet wrote it before time and experience could season a more current perspective.Radulescu s work covers a cultural and philosophical breadth one cannot overlook. Born and raised in Romania during communist era surveillance of citizens was common, along with reprisal for dissent, poet introduces reader to an environment of repression. She gives only a hint of personal loss in poem 1955, where she writes, when my father was taken away, / melted dripped from gutters (p. 123). Other times, she relies on graphic images to refer to unspeakable acts: their corpses our trees, our roads, / tons of blood evaporating in air we breathe (p. 122). These become all more appalling considered not too far from moments of tenderness and optimism, peace comes like snow (p. 197) and the deer came closer to my hand / looking for / flowers (p. 101).Because she writes in Romanian, French, and English (the language in which this collection was written), Radulescu is able to stretch boundaries of words-boundaries she expands with sparse, irregular punctuation and unexpected spacing. As a device, these serve to destabilize language, accenting disjointed world she presents, while inviting a fluid interpretation. Theater of Absurd techniques add another dimension to her poetry, which demands and deserves a close (and second) reading. …